Palestinian filmmakers beat the odds to hit silver screen
- Details
- Written by Marco Woldt for CNN Marco Woldt for CNN
- Published: 22 April 2009 22 April 2009
- Hits: 2914 2914
* Story Highlights
* More films were made in the Palestinian territories in 2008 then ever before
* Filmmakers must overcome problems like travel restrictions and poor distribution
* Director Annemarie Jacir's film "Salt of This Sea" showed at Cannes in 2008
* Jacir: "I think there's a wave coming -- a lot of new filmmakers"
By Marco Woldt
For CNN
LONDON, England (CNN) -- When the 10th London Palestine Film Festival opens this week, Londoners will have greater access to films made in the Palestinian territories than many people living in the region.
Today, there is only one movie theater operating in the West Bank. Gaza has none.
The "Al Kasaba" theater in Ramallah is the only formal film venue for a population of nearly 2.5 million in the West Bank. Due to travel restrictions it is virtually inaccessible to the one and one half million Palestinians residing in Gaza.
It is estimated that about 80 percent of Palestinian children have never been to a movie theater, according to a report in The Christian Science Monitor.
With this lack of distribution, and hardly any formal funding available, producing a film within the Palestinian territories is a tremendous challenge.
Against the odds, the region's filmmakers completed three feature films and an estimated eight shorts in 2008 -- more than ever before. Local directors are determined to tell their stories and have adapted to cope with the region's difficult circumstances.
Lack of cinematic infrastructure
One of the greatest obstacles filmmakers face is a lack of equipment and crews. According to industry experts, directors in the Palestinian territories have little hope of competing with international news media over the limited resources.
"Crews who can work for international news organizations at very high salaries don't want to work for independent film makers," says director and coordinator of the Shashat's Women's Film Festival, Alia Arasoughly. Are you interested in seeing more films made by Palestinian directors? Tell us below in the SoundOff box below
"They don't want to rent their equipment out for a 10-hour shooting day, when they can rent it out for just two hours and triple the price to an international crew."
As a consequence of this, filmmakers are looking to local residents for production assistance.
Annemarie Jacir's first feature film,"Salt of This Sea," which premiered last year at Cannes Film Festival, tells the story of an American woman who travels to Israel to visit the land where her grandfather lived before Palestinians were ejected in 1948.
The film was shot with a crew consisting largely of novices assembled by the director, including a former ambulance driver, a jeweler and a radio DJ.
"There were always discussions with my producers, who preferred bringing more experienced professional people from Europe in, and I insisted that I'd rather have locals even if they're less experienced," Jacir told CNN.
"We're trying to build something in [the Palestinian territories], and when things got tough, because they believed in what we were doing, they stayed."
During the shoot Jacir's team also received unexpected support from members of the local community, who brought them food and drinks in between takes.
"We even had the entire Palestinian police force blocking traffic; going out of their way to help us," remembers Jacir.
Restricted Mobility
A further complication faced by Jacir and her colleagues is the limitation on movement and access in the Palestinian territories.
Since Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, Israeli authorities have imposed varying degrees of restriction on the movement of people in and out of the territories, according to human rights group, Amnesty International.
In 2007, the year in which Jacir shot the majority of her film, Amnesty reported 84 manned checkpoints and 465 unmanned blockades within the West Bank alone.
As a result of these security measures, which the Israelis say are necessary to secure their country from Palestinian attacks, the production of "Salt of This Sea," a movie with over 80 shooting locations was logistically very complex.
In order to shoot the road movie lawfully, Jacir and her crew had to apply for permission to leave Ramallah.
"Every single crew member was rejected. So, just purely getting through the checkpoints and the logistics of keeping a film crew together was an obstacle."
Obtaining shooting permission was equally problematic. Permits for various locations including Jaffa were refused repeatedly -- a hindrance which did not deter Jacir.
"In some cases we just filmed anyway. We put the actors in a real situation and we just did it guerrilla-style. That's how most Palestinian filmmakers are managing to do their work," she told CNN.
A bright future?
While drawbacks such as a lack of funding, a lack of resources, and restrictions of movement would dissuade directors in many other countries, members of the growing film community in the Palestinian territories are forging bonds over the difficulties.
While Arasoughly and Jacir agree that it would be going too far to speak of a "national cinema" at this stage, they look to the future with great optimism.
The novice crew members Jacir recruited to work on "Salt of This Sea" have continued to find work in filmmaking -- a fact Jacir believes indicates an industry is gradually starting to emerge.
"I think there's a wave coming -- a lot of new filmmakers, a lot of people making documentaries and more experimental films, working together," Jacir told CNN.
Arasoughly, whose Shashat festival will enter its fifth year this fall, is equally hopeful.
"The fact that we, under the harshest of conditions in the Arab world, have been able to hold an annual women's film festival, and that hundreds of students come to our screenings means that people want their worlds to be expanded," she said.
"They want wider horizons, and I think for me, this is what makes it possible to go on in the context that we live in."
Links referenced within this article
Are you interested in seeing more films made by Palestinian directors? Tell us below in the SoundOff box below
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/04/22/palestinian.territories.cinema.challenges/index.html#soundoff
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/04/22/palestinian.territories.cinema.challenges/index.html
Another muted scream
- Details
- Written by Sayed Mohamed Dhansay, The Electronic Intifada Sayed Mohamed Dhansay, The Electronic Intifada
- Published: 22 April 2009 22 April 2009
- Hits: 2814 2814
Suddenly a tear gas canister whizzes past the camera making an audible "clunk" as it hits something to the right. He tries to let out a scream, but all he manages is a stifled yelp. One can almost hear his breath being cut short as the projectile punctures his chest. Another muted scream of pain. He falls to the ground then jumps up quickly, running a few steps before collapsing again.
His body rolls a few times as he hits the ground, his limbs flapping loosely underneath him. Two fellow demonstrators run to him, looking almost surprised and unsure of what has just happened. They turn him over, lifting his shirt and calling his name. But he is unresponsive. His eyes are open but his body lies motionless. His bright yellow shirt now quickly growing a wet red stain over his heart.
And so the occupied people of Palestine sacrifice yet another one of their young men. Another one. Again. Just like that. In an instant. Caught live on camera for the world to see. Twenty-nine-year-old Basem Ibrahim Abu Rahme was later pronounced dead at Ramallah hospital on Friday 17 April 2009 after being shot in the chest with a high-velocity tear gas canister by an Israeli soldier. A faceless, nameless soldier who will likely never have to explain or account for taking the life of another human being.
Basem posed no threat to the security of Israel as he stood atop that hill. He was not armed, nor was he throwing stones. Ironically, he was calling out to the Israeli forces to hold their fire because children and internationals were present, when he was shot. He was involved in a nonviolent demonstration when his own life was so violently taken. Basem is the 18th Palestinian to be killed in nonviolent anti-wall protests in the West Bank since 2004.
For four years now the residents of Bilin have nonviolently protested the annexation of their land by Israel's wall. This barrier has effectively annexed roughly 60 percent of Bilin's farming land to the Israeli side. As this village is almost exclusively sustained by agriculture, it's no exaggeration to say that at least 60 percent of its economy has disappeared, with dire consequences for the community's socio-economic welfare.
In 2005 the International Court of Justice ruled that the barrier in its entirety is illegal under international law, recommending that Israel halt its construction and demolish the parts that had already been completed.
In addition, the Israeli high court has ruled on three separate occasions that the route of the barrier in Bilin is illegal under Israeli law. The Israeli army has been ordered more than once to reroute the barrier in order that it not usurp such large tracts of Bilin's land. To date, not a single meter has been removed in Bilin, or anywhere else in the West Bank for that matter.
The Israeli army's claim that the wall is a security measure is simply preposterous. One doesn't have to look far across the barrier in Bilin to see what the land is being stolen for -- the extension of yet another illegal settlement. In this case, the beneficiary of Bilin's land is the Matityahu East neighborhood of the Modi'in Ilit settlement.
Bilin has become somewhat of an inspiration and example in the West Bank for its now famous weekly protests. The small village has also gained international recognition for its steadfastness and commitment to nonviolent protest, as documented in the award-winning film, Bil'in My Love.
The villagers, along with international and even Israeli demonstrators, have faithfully upheld their weekly protests every single Friday, without exception, for the last four years. While these demonstrations are strictly nonviolent and consist mainly of chanting, waving the Palestinian flag and attempting to access the confiscated land, the response from Israeli forces is always harsh.
Every week demonstrators are showered with copious amounts of rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas. Last year, Israeli soldiers killed four youths in separate incidents in the West Bank village of Nilin, who were also participating in nonviolent protests against the barrier in their village.
Lately, however, Israeli troops have employed a new and deadly tactic in an effort to quell protest. This involves the use of a new, high-velocity tear gas canister that is being shot directly at protestors. These canisters are relatively quiet when fired, emitting only a faint smoke trail, which makes them difficult to detect. In addition, their 400-meter range makes them lethal when fired directly at people.
This is the same type of tear gas canister that nearly killed 37-year-old American activist Tristan Anderson in Nilin on 13 March when he was shot directly in the face from 60 meters away. He remains in a coma in a Tel Aviv hospital.
Designed to be fired upwards in an arc-like projection, Israeli soldiers have realized the deadly potential of these canisters and are using them as bullets. It is likely yet another attempt by the Israeli army to attempt disguise their intentions by not shooting ordinary ammunition.
While Tristan Anderson remains in a serious coma, he was lucky to escape with his life. Basem, however, was not as fortunate. And because he is Palestinian, the mainstream international media will not be interested in his case. He is simply not important enough.
His story will be relegated to the bottom corner of a back page of a newspaper somewhere, probably in biased language that blames him for his own death -- if even that. As the haunting sound of his last painful screams play over in my head, I wonder just how much more the collective Palestinian spirit can take before another mass uprising.
For now, the resilience of Bilin lives on. The next day, hundreds turned out for Basem's funeral. His body, draped in the Palestinian flag, Basem was held aloft by mourners as they chanted, "The martyr is beloved by God," eventually bringing him to the final resting place where so many have been taken before.
And while Palestine waits patiently for the international community to stand by its side, the fearless people of Bilin will be out again this Friday. Ready to sacrifice their blood and their souls for something very simple -- just to have returned what has, and always will rightfully be theirs.
Sayed Mohamed Dhansay is a South African who volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement in the West Bank in 2006-07.
Rights groups cry whitewash over army's Gaza probe
- Details
- Written by KARIN LAUB, AP foreign KARIN LAUB, AP foreign
- Published: 22 April 2009 22 April 2009
- Hits: 2962 2962
Rights groups cry whitewash over army's Gaza probe
* AP foreign, Wednesday April 22 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8468351
KARIN LAUB
Associated Press Writer= JERUSALEM (AP) Human rights activists, some charging whitewash, demanded an independent war crimes probe after Israel's military on Wednesday cleared itself of wrongdoing over civilian deaths in the Gaza war.
Army commanders acknowledged "rare mishaps" during the three-week offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers, including an airstrike that killed a family of 21. However, they said Israel did not violate international humanitarian law and that Hamas is to blame for civilian deaths, because it used Gazans as human shields.
At least 1,100 people in Gaza were killed, according to counts by both sides. The military insisted that a majority of the war dead were militants, while the Palestinians said most were civilians.
Israel launched the offensive Dec. 27 to halt years of rocket fire on Israeli border towns. It unleashed unprecedented force in the small seaside strip, including more than 2,000 bombing raids and barrages of artillery and mortar shells, against Palestinian militants, who operated inside residential areas.
Human rights groups say there is grave suspicion that both Israel and Hamas carelessly put civilians in harm's way Hamas by using them as cover and Israel by using disproportionate force in densely populated Gaza. Since the war ended Jan. 18, calls have been mounting for a war crimes probe of both sides.
A U.N. agency has appointed a widely respected former war crimes prosecutor, Richard Goldstone, to lead an investigation. Israeli officials say it's very unlikely Israel will cooperate, alleging the U.N. agency is biased. Hamas, Gaza's sole ruler since a violent takeover in 2007, said it would work with the investigator.
If Israel has nothing to hide, it should cooperate with Goldstone, a coalition of Israeli human rights groups and the New York-based Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. They also questioned the military's ability to investigate itself.
The military's findings "seem to be a cover-up for serious violations of international law," Human Rights Watch said, calling the findings an "insult to civilians" killed in the war.
The Israeli military assigned five colonels to lead separate investigations into its most controversial actions, including attacks on and near U.N. and international facilities, shooting at medical workers and facilities, as well as the use of white phosphorous shells, a chemical agent that can cause horrific burns.
The military said Israeli forces operated in line with international law throughout the fighting.
It said the killing of civilians was unintentional either a result of combat in crowded areas, with Hamas using civilians as human shields, or in rare cases because of human error.
In one such case, an airstrike killed 21 members of the Daya family in Gaza City on Jan. 5, including 12 children, according to a Palestinian list of the war dead. The Israeli military said the target was a weapons factory next door.
The military said what it described as unfortunate incidents, such as the shelling of the U.N. headquarters in Gaza City, were a result of urban combat, "particularly of the type that Hamas forced on the (Israeli) military, by choosing to fight from within the civilian population."
It said U.N. facilities were not struck intentionally.
The military alleged Hamas militants often took cover in ambulances or hospitals.
Investigators noted that Gaza's prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, spent the war at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital. Haniyeh did not appear in public during the war, and remained in hiding for weeks after the fighting ended, apparently fearing assassination.
Israel has promised legal and financial support for officers facing trial. In Norway, a group of lawyers filed a war crimes complaint against 10 Israelis on Wednesday, including the former prime minister.
Since the Gaza war, the political deadlock in the region has only hardened, as Hamas has tightened its grip on Gaza, and a hawkish government was elected in Israel.
The U.N.'s Mideast envoy, Robert Serry, said Wednesday that the international community wants a Palestinian state established alongside Israel.
"The problem is that the parties seem to be less ready and in a position to do what it takes to make peace," he said during a tour of Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem.
Serry inspected the ruins of a Palestinian home demolished hours earlier by Israel, and said witnessing the distress of the now homeless family was "pretty shocking." Israel said it was built without a permit.
He expressed concern about a rising number of demolitions in Palestinian neighborhoods and urged Israel to halt the practice.
Palestinians say Israeli authorities in Jerusalem rarely grant building permits. Israel says it's enforcing the law equally in Jerusalem, whose war-won eastern sector is claimed by the Palestinians as a capital.
---
Associated Press reporter Aron Heller contributed from Tel Aviv, Israel.
Most Palestinians and Israelis willing to accept two-state solution, poll finds
- Details
- Written by David Pallister, guardian.co.uk David Pallister, guardian.co.uk
- Published: 22 April 2009 22 April 2009
- Hits: 2890 2890
Survey indicates around three in four would find outcome at least
'tolerable'
A majority of both Palestinians and Israelis are willing to accept a
two-state solution, according to a poll from the international
grassroots movement One Voice.
Based on public opinion research methods used in Northern Ireland, 500
interviews were completed in Israel and 600 in the West Bank and Gaza
immediately following the Gaza war and the Israeli elections.
Each side was asked which problems they thought were "very significant"
and what the solutions might be.
The results indicate that 74% of Palestinians and 78% of Israelis are
willing to accept a two-state solution on an option range from
"tolerable" to "essential", while 59% of Palestinians and 66% of
Israelis find a single bi-national state "unacceptable".
The poll comes as it emerged Barack Obama is to invite Israeli,
Palestinian and Egyptian leaders to the White House within the next two
months in a fresh push for Middle East peace. Obama, speaking at the
White House yesterday, said there was a need to try to rise above the
cynicism about prospects for peace.
The results of today's poll imply that mainstream Israeli and
Palestinian populations have yet to acknowledge the significant
priorities and fears on the other side.
The top item for Palestinians is the establishment of an independent
sovereign state at 97%, followed by the rights of refugees at 95% and
agreement on the future of Jerusalem at 94%.
For Israelis the top item is security at 77%, followed by an agreement
on the future of Jerusalem at 68% and rights to natural resources at 62%.
An analysis of the poll by One Voice says: "It is absolutely essential
that the issues at the top of these two lists get dealt with in any
peace agreement or it is unlikely that that agreement will last. This
means Palestinians need to be aware of and address the 'Security of
Israel' problem that comes in 12th on the Palestinian list, and that
Israelis need to be aware of and address the cluster of issues at the
top of the Palestinian list."
The poll also revealed significant divisions about the issues of
settlements and refugees, on which there was no single proposed solution
which met with majority approval on both sides. Ninety-eight per cent of
Palestinians think that all the settlers should leave the occupied
territories with the settlements abolished – an option that 53% of
Israelis find unacceptable.
More than 90% of Palestinians want refugees to be given the right to
return with compensation, while 77% of Israelis say that is unacceptable.
On Jerusalem, the sides are poles apart. The most attractive option for
Palestinians – 95% – is for all of Jerusalem to remain in Palestine, and
for Israelis it is for all of Jerusalem to remain in Israel at 56%.
The report says that "as these two options are mutually exclusive
proposals to internationalise or divide the city also need to be
considered".
One Voice concludes that, at a minimum, the results suggest that "the
continued insistence of both sides on a negotiated and mutually
acceptable resolution could offer significant legitimacy to political
leaders looking to push for negotiations toward a two-state agreement".
Barack Obama begins push for Middle East peace
- Details
- Written by Ewen MacAskill in Washington Ewen MacAskill in Washington
- Published: 21 April 2009 21 April 2009
- Hits: 2984 2984
Barack Obama begins push for Middle East peace
• Invitations issued to key regional leaders
• Effort comes against backdrop of Gaza war
Barack Obama is to invite Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian leaders to the White House within the next two months in a fresh push for Middle East peace.
Obama, speaking at the White House yesterday, said there was a need to try to rise above the cynicism about prospects for peace. The decision appeared to mark the end of a debate within the Obama administration between those who argued in favour of devoting time and energy to trying to resolve the conflict and those who argued it was a blind alley.
Meeting King Abdullah of Jordan at the White House yesterday, Obama said he hoped "gestures of good faith" would be made "on all sides" in the coming months. He did not say what these gestures, intended as confidence-building measures, would amount to.
The three leaders are being invited for separate talks rather than round-table negotiations. The aim is to complete all three visits before Obama goes to France for the D-Day anniversary on 6 June.
The chances of a deal in the short term appear slim and Obama yesterday acknowledged that circumstances in Israel and the Palestinian territories were not conducive to peace. "Unfortunately, right now what we've seen not just in Israel, but within the Palestinian territories, among the Arab states, worldwide, is a profound cynicism about the possibility of any progress being made whatsoever," he said.
"What we want to do is to step back from the abyss, to say, as hard as it is, as difficult as it may be, the prospect of peace still exists, but it's going to require some hard choices."
His push comes against a background of the devastation of Gaza by Israeli forces last year and continued infighting among Palestinian factions. The hardline Israeli coalition that emerged from the February elections includes as foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, who opposes swapping land for peace.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said the meetings were likely to take place before the president goes to France. "With each of them the president will discuss ways the United States can strengthen and deepen our partnerships with them, as well as the steps all parties must take to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians and Israel and the Arab states," Gibbs told a news conference
Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, has been pencilled in for a visit to the White House in the middle of next month. Netanyahu, since becoming prime minister, has refused to acknowledge the right of the Palestinians to a state of their own, as his predecessor had. But Obama yesterday stated firmly his commitment to the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is to make a separate visit, as is the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. Egypt has been acting as a go-between between Abbas, who controls the West Bank, and Hamas, which controls Gaza.
The White House meetings could amount to the start of the biggest US push for peace since a half-hearted one by George Bush, who held a conference at Annapolis, Maryland, in 2007 and Bill Clinton's belated effort at the Camp David summit in 2000 and Taba in Egypt in 2001.The US has failed to achieve any major peace agreement in the Middle East since Jimmy Carter brokered the Israeli-Egyptian treaty in 1979.
Obama appears to have come round to the view of advisers that the US will effectively have to impose much of any deal on Israel and the Palestinians rather than wait for one to emerge from the two sides. He said yesterday: "I agree that we can't talk forever, that at some point steps have to be taken so that people can see progress on the ground. And that will be something that we will expect to take place in the coming months.
"My hope would be that over the next several months, that you start seeing gestures of good faith on all sides. I don't want to get into the details of what those gestures might be, but I think that the parties in the region probably have a pretty good recognition of what intermediate steps could be taken as confidence-building measures."
In a symbolic move intended to show that he seeks to be more of an honest broker than Clinton or Bush, Obama, on his first day in office, phoned Abbas before he phoned Ehud Olmert, then Israeli prime minister. He was also demonstrating that he was prepared to become involved from day one rather than, as his predecessors had done, leaving the issue to the tail end of his presidency.